Sometimes
by A'isha Ishtar
Summary: If I'd known my uncle was this creepy cool snake dude, I would have opted to move in with HIM a long time ago. Oh yeah, and there's his sweet team of ninjas... their leader is super hot, by the way. eventual Kimi/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Ummmm... not much of an explanation. I started something like this... what, maybe three years ago. I reread it and most of it kinda sucked. Sooo, decided to redo it since I'm home sick. Forgive the sucky first chapter, it will get better!**

**Hope you like!**

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><p>"Mae, aren't you coming down for your special birthday dinner?"<p>

I rolled my eyes, clicking another YouTube link for Trey Songz. Right now all I wanted to do was _block out_ my mother. "I'm busy," I called back.

"Would you get down here? I made the ramen like you wanted."

I pushed myself away from the computer and opened the door. I was just in my socks, a tank top, and shorts, and I knew my mom was the only one down there. The few friends I had were strictly school friends, as in I never hung out with them outside of classes. They never invited me anywhere, I never invited them anywhere. They'd just turn it down anyway.

I walked down the stairs, my hand sliding down the rail as I went. "Why is it always just me and you for all my birthdays?" I mumbled, sitting down at the table in front of my bowl of ramen. (Ever since I'd found out it existed, sure, I loved it. My mom brought it over from Japan, it was like one of the main things over there. She never made the instant kind for my birthday, always from scratch.) "Dad's never here, and his relatives are always busy. Where's _your_ side of the family? Don't I have any aunts or uncles in Japan?"

For like five seconds, my mother looked kind of unnerved. "Mae, your relatives in Japan - they don't have time to take off every year. They're busy too."

"So they can't take off one day for their niece's birthday? I'm seventeen. I'm practically an adult." I picked up my chopsticks and picked at the noodles and tiny shrimp floating in the bowl. "If they don't come next year when I turn eighteen, I'm gonna flip my shit."

"_Mae_." My mother swatted me with her fan. "What have I told you about that language? I didn't talk like that until I was twenty-one."

"Starts way earlier now, _kaa-san_." I closed my eyes, just breathing in the smell of the ramen. "Where's Dad anyway? He's never home."

"He's on a business trip, Mae." She sat down at her own bowl. "You know that."

"I don't see why he has to be on one for three weeks out of every month. I barely see him."

She shrugged. "He was home a _lot_ when you were a baby, you know."

"Yeah. But I'm not a baby anymore, _kaa-san_." I sighed, looking into my bowl of ramen. I could see my reflection, and let's just say I didn't look anything like a woman. Not a seventeen-year-old, that's for sure.

All I saw was a little kid, whining for her daddy, begging for attention. I was so pathetic.

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><p><em>Kaa-san<em> had fallen asleep quite a while ago, and I was still up. I decided that since this was my seventeenth birthday, I could stay up past midnight. Besides, it was a weekend; no school tomorrow.

Before she'd come upstairs to go to sleep, I snuck into her room to do some snooping. Can you blame me? I was curious about my relatives in Japan. Maybe she had something there. And score - I found a CD in one of the drawers. It was marked with a piece of tape that said _Konoha_. I figured that was the name of the city in Japan where she'd lived before.

I had been waiting for her to be sound asleep before I looked at it. Since I'd heard her lock her door an hour ago (which meant she was going to Dreamland), she was probably zonked out by now, so I deemed it safe to look at the CD.

I put it in my computer, and up came the autoplay window. Apparently there were several types of files on this thing - pictures, videos, text documents, and music. Now the question was, which one did I want to investigate first?

I clicked on the music and after a second, the window came up. Disappointing, there was only one file, _Inori_. So I clicked on it to listen to it, and it sounded like Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up", but it was in Japanese and it was a girl singing. The melody was the same, but the words were probably something different than the original.

"_Urunda hitomi no oku ni_

_Kawaranu kimi no sugata_

'_Doko made sekai wa tsudzuku no?'_

_Todaeta hibi no kotoba_

_Kogoeru arashi no yoru mo_

_Mada minu kimi e tsudzuku_

_Oshiete umi wataru kaze_

_Inori wa toki wo koeru_..."

It was beautiful, so I looked up the lyrics and the translation in English. The first verse and chorus went something like _In the depths of my tear-filled eyes/Is your everlasting beauty/"How far does the world go?"/Those words from our bygone days/Even on those freezing, stormy nights/Though you are still out of sight, I continue on/Please tell me, ocean-crossing wings/That my prayers will pass through time..._

I wondered why my mother had a song like that on this file. Sure, it was pretty, but if that was the only reason, wouldn't she have it with the rest of her songs on that other CD marked _J-Pop_? If it reminded her of where she came from, there must've been some real drama going on with her and her family. Maybe that was why they never visited.

While I finished listening to it on a continuous loop, I opened up the pictures.

There were about ten of them. There were two marked _Me and Nii-chan's Sensei_, 1 and 2, which were a younger version of my mother and some older guy. In the first one, he had his arm around her and she was giving a cheeky grin while holding up the peace sign. In the second one, they were hugging.

Then there were three marked with _Oro and Mae-chan_. I saw my name, and I was intrigued - of course, I would have looked at them anyway, but who the hell was Oro? She'd never told me about anyone with that name. And since the previous two pics had "_nii-chan_" in the name, I thought it was safe to assume that whoever Oro was, it was her big brother. But why would they include my name too? I'd never met him.

The first picture had an outside setting. In it there was a guy probably a little bit older than my mom, with white skin - I'm not talking Asian white, I'm talking _white as chalk_ - and long black hair. Cradled in one of his arms was a little baby; me, obviously. I guess it must have been taken when I was really young, otherwise I would have remembered this guy. He was smiling at the camera, while the younger me was apparently nipping at the bottle in his other hand.

The second picture was inside. The same guy, this time in a chair. His eyes were closed, and I was on his lap. We were both sleeping - I guess maybe we'd fallen asleep together.

In the third picture, I was a little older - six months, maybe. We were outside again, and he had me on his knee. This time _he_ was giving the peace sign.

Another picture was _Oro Training_. It was the same guy as in those last few pics, but he looked younger - like, how old I was right at this moment. He was holding a kunai knife. My mother had one, but she'd only shown it to me once and never took it out of her room. I knew she also had a shuriken, and she kept a katana in the basement. I just thought it was a weird cultural thing. Did she really used to fight with them? _Oh my God_, did she still?

The last two pics were scenery, obviously from my mom's hometown. One was an open-air shop with a banner above it that said _Ichiraku's Ramen_. The other was a mountain with some guys' faces carved into it, kind of like Mount Rushmore.

I looked at the video folder next. Like the music folder, there was only one file there. Oddly, it had the same title as one of the pictures - _Oro Training_. In the video, he was about the same age as that picture. It showed him reeling back and hurling a shuriken at what looked like a dummy. It hit the center of one of the targets on the thing, and he shot a smirk at the camera. Someone, presumably my mother, screamed her praise. _"Good shot! Wai_!"

Finally, all that was left was the text doc. I opened up that folder, and there was only one in this too - titled _Oro's Email_.

I opened it up, naturally. It was after midnight - _Kaa-san_ wouldn't know I contacted him, she wasn't awake. The email address was _lordofsnakes()_. Weird, I know. But if you knew my uncle, you'd understand.

I tempted fate, and I sent him an e-mail.

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><p><em>My name is Mae Novak, and I think my mom is your sister.<em>

_Who are you?_

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><p><strong>Soooo? Whatcha thinkin'? Like? No?<strong>

**Send me a review, they're always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading! ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well well well... been a while eh? XD**

**I'm a weirdo, yes. I went on an insanely long kick for other random shit... and then stumbled back upon this story. Actually, no, I didn't stumble. IT TRIPPED ME. X'D**

**So, I decided to continue it. Because Orochimaru is awesome, and there aren't enough Kimimaro/OCs to go around. Plus, Kimimaro is too awesome for even any words. JUST SAYIN'~**

**And I promise, I'll get another chapter of Find Your Love out! I feel bad for leaving all my Naruto stuff for so long, I'm awful lol.**

**Sooooo, enjoy!**

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><p>It was a little while before I got a reply back. Probably an hour, during which I listened to the song some more while reading FMLs and laughing at other people's misery. For some reason I was really hoping this guy got back to me; I actually had <em>family<em> in Japan if he was really my mom's brother. My mom had never told me about him. What could she have to hide about him? The way he'd been holding me and smiling in the pictures, it seemed like he would be the perfect uncle.

But finally, something popped up in my inbox. From the same address I'd sent my email to. So I eagerly opened it up.

_Indeed I do have a younger sister... and she has one daughter. My sister's name is Akane. Then could you be my little Mae-chan?_

_I am Orochimaru, and I live in Otogakure._

I absorbed all of this information, and after reading the first line, a smile came to my face. Akane was my mother's first name - and I was an only child. This had to be my uncle! Oh God, this was so exciting. And speaking to him without my mom knowing? That was icing on the cake. So I quickly sent another email back.

_That's my mom's name! I must be your "little Mae-chan." I can't believe I'm actually talking to my uncle._

_It's so awesome to meet you, even if it's not in person. I have so many questions for you. I don't know what to ask you first... are you married? Do I have an aunt too? LOL! Sorry, I'm really excited._

Waiting for his reply the next time was a little harder for me to handle. Did he even want to talk to me? I couldn't imagine why my mom wouldn't want me talking to him or seeing him. He seemed like a nice person, and he seemed to be just as curious about me as I was about him. He even had a nickname for me. None of my dad's brothers had nicknames for me other than, "Hey, kiddo."

_Ah, you must be then. I wonder how old you are now... sixteen? Seventeen? I'm terrible with keeping track of time. My, it's been years since I last saw you and your mother... but it's so wonderful to hear from you._

_I have many questions for you too, Mae-chan. Hehe, and to answer, no, I am not married. Unfortunately you only have myself and my associates._

_However, I do have an idea. It's quite early over here, and no one but my assistant is awake. My video chat application is likely quite outdated by your standards, but it bears the same address as my email. If you would like, we could speak face to face, at least for a while. I will be waiting, if that's your wish._

I figured, what could it hurt? At least I could finally meet my uncle, in a way, and see what he looked like now; all this typing was getting tedious anyway. I just hoped my mom didn't wake up while we were talking.

_Today's my seventeenth birthday, actually. But it was really lame. It's great that I can finally talk to you after not knowing you for so long... :')_

_That sounds like a really good idea. My computer's old so I probably have the same program. I'll send you a friend request and then we can start a call. I can't wait to see you._

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><p>Five minutes later, I had found my uncle's profile and we'd added each other into our contact list. So far he was my only contact except for the customer service contact. After about another minute of deep breathing and preparing myself, I clicked the button for a video call.<p>

For a moment I thought he wasn't even going to accept the call. But my fears subsided when the screen flashed and suddenly, I found myself staring at a white-skinned, black-haired man. The same one in the photos; and he looked almost exactly as he had in the training video.

I leaned forward a little. "Uncle... Uncle Orochimaru? Orochimaru-oji-san?"

He chuckled, and I thought his smile was the most wonderful thing I'd seen in months. "Hello, my little Mae-chan_._ It's been a while, hasn't it?" He pushed back a long lock of his hair, his smile growing wider. "My, how you've grown."

I squealed in my chair and brought my knees to my chest. "I can't believe it's really you! This is so crazy! I have so much to ask you..."

He nodded patiently, all his attention focused on me. "I understand. I too have quite a bit to ask _you,_ my dear. I haven't seen you since you were a baby. So... how is your mother? I haven't seen my sister in years, ever since she and Jacob left Otogakure."

"Oh, she's fine. Good mom and all that, I guess." I tilted my head to the side. "Where's Otogakure? _Kaa-san_ told me you lived in Japan."

"There are many cities in Japan, Mae. Many regions, too. Otogakure just happens to be one of those regions." He frowned slightly. "Akane-imouto never told you what it is that I do, did she?"

I shook my head, pushing some of my bangs back. "No, she didn't... why?"

"Hehe." His somewhat creepy but awesome grin was back. "My dear... I am a shinobi."

I blinked a few times. "What... What's a shinobi?"

"A ninja."

My eyes widened, and I heard him laugh as I was just staring at the screen. "You're..." I lowered my voice, squealing as much as a whisper would allow. "_My uncle's a ninja?!_" I swear he just blew my mind.

"Yes," he replied, once I'd stopped freaking out. "I also have a few younger shinobi that I've taken under my tutelage. And Akane-imouto used to be one, as well, before she met Jacob and resigned this life."

"My... _My mother was a ninja?!_" Mind blown again.

He chuckled, leaning forward a bit. "Clearly my sister never told you anything about this half of your heritage. My... I wonder why not? Surely she couldn't be ashamed of it. She was very talented, and I taught her everything she knows. And as they say, my bark _is_ worse than my bite, after all. I know I could be mean to her sometimes, but I'm not _that_ bad."

"I can't believe she never told me about you." I cupped my hand, resting my cheek there. "This is insane! I mean... you just turned this from the worst birthday in history to the best."

"Ah yes. Happy birthday, Mae-chan. How old did you say you are now?"

"Seventeen. Practically an _adult_ in my own right, and my mom still treats me like a little kid." I sighed, glancing down. "It's like she doesn't get me at all. She won't tell me anything, and she... she told me that the reason my relatives in Japan couldn't be here for my birthday was because they were _busy._" I glanced back up, blushing a little. "Well, I guess as a ninja you must be pretty busy, so maybe she was right..."

He clasped his hands under his chin, leaning forward. "Mae-chan, I need you to believe me when I say that no matter what, I would never be too busy to visit you, especially on your birthday. I've wanted to see you for so long, and I've missed you very much. The truth is... Akane-imouto left our village almost seventeen years ago, and before she did..." He shook his head. "She and I had a big quarrel. She said she no longer wanted me in your life or hers, and I haven't heard from her since."

All I could do for a minute was just blink at the screen, trying to comprehend what he'd just told me. In some ways that didn't sound like my mother, to just shun her family like that. But in other ways, it sounded just like her; she had a habit of taking things way too far, especially if she got angry, and it wasn't exactly hard to imagine her doing something like that. "I can't believe it..." I glanced toward the door, almost afraid she'd come bursting in at any moment. "She's... been _lying_ to me my whole life..."

"Oh, Mae-chan... please, forget I ever said anything." He sighed heavily, as I turned back to look at him. "I feel like I'm ruining your birthday all over again. I'm so scatterbrained, you must forgive me..."

"No, no, it's... you're not..." I felt tears in my eyes. It was like everything I knew in my entire life was a _lie._ I didn't know anything, really. What was up? Or down? Left? Right? This was ridiculous... my mother didn't tell me anything. She didn't even trust me to know about her old life, or _my_ uncle.

"Oh, dear, Mae-chan. I can see I've upset you... what's wrong?"

"I hate it here," I choked out. "_Kaa-san_ keeps me in the dark about everything. Dad's never home. I have no friends outside of school because everyone thinks I'm a _freak..._" I wrapped my arms around myself, taking a deep breath. "I... I don't even wanna be here anymore. I just wanna run away."

There was a moment of quiet, and then Orochimaru spoke up. "Mae-chan, my dear... certainly I'm not encouraging that. I mean, just because your mother and I are no longer close doesn't mean you should resent her. But... just know this: if you ever truly decide to run away from home, you would always have a place with me. Until you were ready to go back."

I looked up, wiping across my eyes with my wrist. "Uncle Orochimaru... do... you really mean that?"

He almost looked shocked that I would even ask. "Why, of course. I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it."

I stood up. "Then I'm coming. If you can email me your address... I think I've saved up enough money for a ticket. I'll be on the next plane." I leaned back down, to end the call after I finished talking. "It's late, so _Kaa-san_ won't even know. Can you meet me at the airport when I get there?"

A flash of surprise crossed his face, then he smiled. "I'll be waiting for you, my little Mae-chan."

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><p><strong>Japanese translations, yay!<strong>

**-chan = suffix denoting friendship, used mostly for girls and young boys**

**Kaa-san = Mother/Mom**

**-oji-san = suffix denoting that the person in question is the speaker's uncle**

**-imouto = suffix denoting that the person in question is the speaker's younger sister**

**Lol, Orochimaru is so manipulative! XD Hmm, I think that maybe Mae is not getting the whole story here...**

**Next chapter, Mae's arrival in Otogakure! AKA the land where she thinks all of her dreams will come true but instead is actually the Land of Rice-For-Every-Meal. She might just meet Orochi next chap, and he'll take her back to his pseudo-Kage pad. Although I may squeeze one or two of the Sound 4 in there... heck, I have no idea, I might just get all of them in. XD**

**UN-PRE-DICTABLE! :D**

**Hope you enjoyed, guys!**

**Thanks for reading! ^^**


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